


Tell Me We're Dead And I'll Love You Even More

by ktfics



Series: Ghosting [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Healing, M/M, Post-New Dangan Ronpa V3, Pre-Relationship, Virtual Reality, vr au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 08:42:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17763536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ktfics/pseuds/ktfics
Summary: Kokichi Ouma wakes up screaming.





	Tell Me We're Dead And I'll Love You Even More

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a quote from Richard Siken's "The Torn Up Road"

Kokichi Ouma wakes up screaming.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Kokichi Ouma is screaming. The cards in Kaito’s hand fall to the table with a small clatter, and the background noise of the other players fades into irrelevance.

It’s two in the afternoon and Kokichi Ouma is screaming and suddenly Kaito is half-dead again, feet dragging him and another half-dead body through a hangar-turned-burial ground, foolishly forgetting his own role in the story and hoping for a hero that could save them. 

Kaito jumps to his feet before he even realizes what he’s doing and turns towards the pod room. In his peripheral vision he can see a couple of the others mirror him, heads craning towards the hallway that leads into the common area most of the 53rd season participants are currently residing in. He watches all the nurses on duty begin to flow towards the large metal doors housing fifteen empty pods and one still occupied.

“What’s happening?” The words leave his lips before he stops to consider them. Ouma is finally awake, that much is clear at least. Kaito remembers waking up himself, opening his eyes to daylight he had never expected to see again, remembers the disorientation and the faint memory of pain amongst the stars, and then the countless tests conducted in order to gauge his well-being. He does not remember waking up to any discomfort beyond sore muscles and a vague disappointment that could not be named, which begs the question; why was Kokichi Ouma screaming? The nurses do not answer him, but it turns out they don’t need to.

The metal doors burst open and Ouma runs out, slipping between nurses attempting to stop his mad rush. He’s dressed in the standard t-shirt and sweats provided by Team Danganronpa before they entered the simulation, and Kaito is once again struck by how thin the boy is, how small, now that his larger-than-life personality and pride have been stripped from him. Kaito feels like he has one foot in the hangar and one in the hospital; perhaps he’s felt like this ever since waking up.

Ouma’s bare feet smack against the floor tiles, and his porcelain doll eyes stare at the now-silent group in the common area. He stands closer to them now than he does the pod room, and the nurses near him begin to approach like he’s a wild animal caught in a trap that has already begun to gnaw its own leg off.

“This doesn’t make any sense. This isn’t right.” Ouma breathes in and attempts to laugh but it’s more of a wheeze than anything else. His legs wobble beneath him and his hair is longer now, just past his shoulders, the color a dull, greasy black. Kaito remembers waking up and thinking about how everything looked duller now, but Ouma’s eyes seem to be the same sparkling expanse that they were in the game, just as confounding as the rest of him. Once again, Kaito’s legs move before he asks them to.

The wobbling worsens until Ouma near collapses, but Kaito approaches in time to grab onto his forearms. 

“Hey, you’re awake. You’re alive. Everything’s okay.” Kaito attempts to replicate the hero’s smile he had so often donned during the game, but he finds that his personality nowadays has been reduced to a weird mixture of reckless abandon and a barely kept at bay violence that had simmered in him before the game ever even started. His mouth moves and he hopes he looks confident but he can’t help but feel duller.

Ouma’s weight gives out beneath him and his arms seem to spasm as he arches forward with a low hiss of pain. At a loss of how to keep him standing, Kaito has just a second to catch him and transfer the boy’s small body into his arms bridal-style. He wants to ask if he’s okay, but Ouma is suddenly leaning down to where his legs now rest in Kaito’s arms and rolling up his pant leg. Kaito feels his mouth go dry and he wants to throw up; Ouma’s leg is a map of bruises, the skin mottled with browns and yellows and greens. In some places it looks as if the skin’s broken open as well, the raw wounds cracked with dried blood.

“This doesn’t make any sense. This isn’t right.” Ouma repeats his earlier words and Kaito finds it in himself to nod and slowly move to shoot the nurses a sharp look. Their eyes are wide with shock; Ouma is right, this isn’t supposed to happen. The wounds they gathered in the simulation were not supposed to transfer here; it doesn’t make any sense, it’s not right. 

“Bring him to the empty room, we need to figure out what’s wrong-” The head nurse is cut off by Ouma’s frantic speech.

“Don’t, this is my body again, don’t touch me, I-” he begins to squirm in Kaito’s grasp. He holds onto the boy a little tighter and begins to walk towards the last room with an unoccupied hospital bed.

“Stop moving. I’m gonna make sure you recover if it fuckin’ kills you.” Kaito feels- he feels guilt, or protectiveness, he isn’t sure, really, but he feels whatever it was he felt in the game whenever he geared up to challenge Ouma. He still isn’t sure if it’s a feeling he likes or not, but for the first time since waking up he feels alive, at least. He walks forward and his foot begins to leave the hangar floor at last.

Ouma lets out another laugh-wheeze but stops struggling quite so much. “Been there, done that Momo-chan!” His voice is a poor imitation of the teasing lilt it was in game, but it grows stronger the more he speaks. “Looks like you’ll just have to stay with me to make sure I don’t run again, huh? You just can’t stop chasing me, can you?” The words are combative and slightly exasperated, but after looking into Ouma’s wide eyes staring up into his, Kaito gets his meaning for once. 

The two boys enter the last unclaimed room and Kaito lays Ouma down on the empty bed in a cruel contrast to their last moments in the hangar, but this time Kaito is determined to keep the boy alive long enough to catch up to him. He pulls over a chair as the nurses once again file towards them and begin hooking Ouma up to the various monitors already in place, his wide eyes never once leaving Kaito’s. And Kaito stays.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this is my first time ever publishing fanfiction and the first time I've creatively written in a very long time so go easy on me! I'm hoping to make this into a series bc I have a lot of vr headcanons but we'll see! Comments and kudos appreciated, especially if you want to see this continued!


End file.
